Best Mercenary Witch Hunter build in Path of Exile 2

Discover everything you need to know about the Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Build in Path of Exile 2 including skills, stats and gears.

Path of Exile 2 has received an initial release on December 6, 2024. There is a total of 12 distinct Classes, each granting its own uniqueness in the game. Unfortunately, the Classes in Path of Exile 2 are gender-locked, meaning you cannot choose the gender of a specific Class as it is predetermined. Each class offers two distinct Ascendancies to choose from that further enhance your survivability due to its bonuses and buffs in the game. Selecting the best Witch Hunter build is crucial because your gameplay depends on it. Explore the Witch Hunter Build in Path of Exile 2 and see how it redefines your gameplay! In this guide, we’ll discuss the Best Witch Hunter Build in Path of Exile 2 including the best gear and passive skills to use.

Mercenary Witch Hunter build in Path of Exile 2 Explored

The Witchhunter focuses on critical strikes, utility, and crowd control. This is the best choice for taking down the magic user’s enemies. It boosts your defense against magic but offers less defense against physical attacks. This Ascendancy disrupts spell casters, slowing their cast interval. It can explode enemies and doubles for undead enemies and demons. We include active skills like Punch, Gas Grenade, and Oil Grenade in this build to dominate any enemy coming in the path. It offers huge defensive utility along with increased single-target damage.

In this full overview of the setup, we will explain what skill gems and skill links should you focus on. Then as well, we’ll see what is the best gear and how to get it for both the leveling and midgame. And then, finally, we will go over the passive skill tree, stats, and your skill rotations, so we would be able to get the greatest damage possible and much more.

Witch Hunter Build Pros	Witch Hunter Build Cons
Increased Single-Target Damage	Requires High Skill
Counterplay	Gear Dependency
Scaling with Missing Life	Limited AoE
Concentration Mechanics
Defensive Utility

Best Mercenary Witch Hunter skills and support gems in Path of Exile 2

Here are the best skills and support gems for Witch Hunter build that you should use in Path of Exile 2.

• Punch
• Gas Grenade
  • Scattershot (Support Gems)
  • Immolate (Support Gems)
  • Elemental Focus (Support Gems)
  • Primal Armament (Support Gems)
  • Fire Infusion (Support Gems)
• Oil Grenade
  • Strip Away (Support Gems)
  • Persistence (Support Gems)
  • Encumbrance (Support Gems)
• Flash Grenade
  • Maim (Support Gems)
  • Ingenuity (Support Gems)
  • Brutality (Support Gems)
• Ripwire Ballista
  • Lockdown (Support Gems)
• Herald of Ash
  • Clarity (Support Gems)
  • Cannibalism (Support Gems)
• High Velocity Rounds
  • Unbreakable (Support Gems)
  • Double Barrel (Support Gems)
• Galvanic Shards
  • Lightning Infusion (Support Gems)
  • Pierce (Support Gems)
• Voltaic Grenade
  • Second Wind (Support Gems)
  • Conduction (Support Gems)

Punch

Perform an unarmed strike.

Gas Grenade

Fires a bouncing grenade that causes a burst of poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing poison cloud. Burning effects or detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast.

• Fuse duration is 2 seconds
• Impact radius is (1.4-2) meters

Additional effects from quality:

• Gains (0-10)% more area of effect per second, up to a maximum of (0-60)%

Immolate (Support Gems)

Supports attacks, granting them extra fire damage against ignited enemies but making them unable to ignite enemies themselves.

• Supported skills cannot ignite
• Supported attacks gain 30% of damage as extra fire damage against ignited enemies

Elemental Focus (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that hits enemies, causing it to deal more elemental damage but be unable to inflict elemental ailments.

• Supported Skills cannot inflict elemental ailments
• Supported skills deal 25% more elemental damage

Primal Armament (Support Gems)

Supports attacks that use a weapon, causing them to deal more weapon elemental damage.

• Supported skills deal 25%   more weapon elemental damage

Fire Infusion (Support Gems)

Supports attacks, causing them to gain fire damage but deal less cold and lightning damage.

• Supported attacks gain 25% of damage as extra fire damage
• Supported attacks deal 50% less cold and lightning damage

Oil Grenade

Fire a bouncing grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies. Oil created this way can be ignited by Detonator Skills or Burning Ground.

• Fuse duration is 1.6 seconds
• Oil and Oil Grenade duration is 5 seconds
• Covering enemies in Oil slows their movement speed by 20%
• Oil Ground slows enemy movement speed by 30%
• Oil Ground applies fire exposure to enemies, lowering total fire resistance by 20%
• Covering enemies in Oil applies fire exposure, lowering total fire resistance by 20%
• Oil spray radius is (2-2.2) meters

Additional effects from quality:

• (0-10)% increased cooldown recovery rate

Strip Away (Support Gems)

Supports skills which apply exposure to enemies, increasing the effect of applied exposure

• Exposure applied by supported skills has a 30% increased effect

Persistence (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that has a duration, making that duration longer.

• Supported Skills have 40% more skill effect duration

Encumbrance (Support Gems)

Supports any skill, causing inflicted slows to be more powerful.

• Debuffs inflicted with Supported Skills have a 15% increased slow magnitude

Flash Grenade

Fires a bouncing grenade that unleashes a blinding stunning explosion when its fuse expires. This explosion can blind both allies and enemies.

• Blinds enemies
• 100% more stun buildup

Maim (Support Gems)

Supports attacks, causing them to be Main enemies.

• Supported attacks always Main on hit

Ingenuity (Support Gems)

Supports skills with cooldowns, increasing the rate at which those cooldowns recover.

• Supported Skills have a 30% increased cooldown recovery rate

Brutality (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that deals damage, boosting its physical damage at the expense of all other damage types.

• Deals no elemental damage
• Deals no Chaos damage
• Supported skills deal 35% more physical damage

Ripwire Ballista

Deploys a Ballista totem that fires pinning bolts which Maim enemies.

• Totems duration is 6 seconds
• Totem base attack time is 1.6 seconds
• +1 to Totem Limit
• Totem uses its own weapon, dealing (6-141) to (9-212) base physical damage

Lockdown (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that hits enemies, causing any Pin buildup it inflicts to be stronger the closer the enemy is to you.

• Supports skills have 120% more Pin buildup against enemies within 2 meters of you, scaling to no change at 12 meters

Herald of Ash

While active, enemies sufficiently overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the overall damage dealt.

• Ignite surrounding enemies if overkill damage is at least 20% of the enemy’s maximum life

Clarity (Support Gems)

Supports persistent buff skills, causing you to gain increased mana regeneration while the skill is active.

• 30% increased mana regeneration rate while a supported skill is active.

Cannibalism (Support Gems)

Supports persistent buff skills, causing you to recover Life in a kill while the skill is active.

• 4% of Life recovered on kill while a Supported skill is active

High Velocity Rounds

Loads your crossbow with piercing bolts that can consume fully broken armour on enemies to deal extra damage.

• 1 bolt loaded per clip

Unbreakable (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that you can use, making it harder to stun while using it.

• 200% more stun Threshold while using Supported skills

Double Barrel (Support Gems)

Supports crossbow ammunition skills, causing them to load an extra bolt at the cost of reload speed.

• Supported skills load an additional bolt
• Supported Skills have 1% less reload speed

Galvanic Shards

Loads your crossbow with a clip of charged bolts that fragment in flight, releasing chaining lightning beams when they hit enemies. Using this skill again reloads the clip.

• 5 bolts loaded per clip
• 50% less reload speed

Lightning Infusion (Support Gems)

Supports attacks, causing them to gain lightning damage but deal less cold and fire damage.

• Supported attacks gain 25% of damage as extra lightning damage
• Supported attacks deal 50% less cold and fire damage

Pierce (Support Gems)

Supports projectile skills, making their projectiles pierce an enemy but deal less damage after doing so.

• Projectiles from supported skills pierce an enemy
• Projectiles from supported skills deal 100% less damage if they’ve pierced an enemy

Voltaic Grenade

Fires a bouncing grenade that discharges an electrocuting lightning blast when its fuse expires.

• Lightning damage from this skill contributes to electrocution buildup
• Converts 80% of physical damage to lightning damage
• 50% more electrocution buildup

Second Wind (Support Gems)

Supports skills with cooldowns, giving them extra use of that cooldown. Cannot support instant or triggered skills.

• Supported skills have twice as many cooldown uses
• Supported Skills have 50% less cooldown recovery rate

Conduction (Support Gems)

Supports any skill that hits enemies, making it more likely to shock

• Supported Skills have 100% more chance to shock

Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Stat Priorities

Here are some stats that you should prioritize using your passive board and through gear as well.

Regular Stats

• Dexterity
• Strength
• Intelligence

Dexterity is a crucial stat for Witch Hunter because it allows you to equip gear with high evasion and combine evasion and armour. Strength and Intelligence are also recommended to equip powerful support gems like Double Barrel and Frost Nexus and stronger early access abilities like Herald of Ash.

Defensive Stats

• Evasion
• Movement Speed
• Armour

Evasion in Path of Exile 2 is a defensive stat for the Witch Hunter because it allows you to run away from enemies while firing your crossbow in combat. Also, consider the movement speed that you can obtain from the Ranger skill tree to the right of the Mercenary tree. If you somehow get swarmed in melee there’s no harm in some armour.

Offensive Stats

• Projectile damage
• Chance to inflict ailments
• Weapon swap speed
• Grenade AoE

Projectile damage is best for Witch Hunter in the game. We recommend you focus on buffing your ailments to freeze and ignite enemies with ammo types. Add some additional AoE to boost the effectiveness of your grenades. Grab weapon swap speed because it allows you to quickly swap crossbows for combo ammo types and unique devastating effects.

Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Passive Skills

We include the passive skills that enhance the area of effect for attacks and increased projectile speed. However, some passive boost your armour capability to soak all the incoming damage, reducing enemies’ damage output. Strength is also an important attribute that you should focus on, so we include passives that enhance the Strength stats of your character in the game.

• Cluster Bombs- 50% increased grenade fuse duration, grenade skills fire an additional projectile.
• Leather Bound Gauntlets- +1 to evasion rating per armour on equipped gloves
• General’s Bindings- Gain 8% of evasion as extra armour
• Backup Plan- 40% increased armour if you haven’t been hit recently. 40% increased evasion rating if you have been hit recently
• Devastation- 15% increased area of effect for attacks. 15% increased attack area damage
• Sturdy Metal- 80% increased armour from equipped body armour
• Blade Catcher- Defend with 200% of armour against critical hits
• Ricochet- 15% increased projectile damage, projectiles have a 10% chance to chain an additional time
• Feel No Pain- 20% increased armour and evasion rating, 20% increased stun threshold
• Remorseless- 15% increased projectile damage, 30% increased stun buildup against enemies within two meters, +5 strength, and dexterity

How Skill Tree in Set is POE2

For most new players, the passive skill tree is extremely daunting but actually, it’s quite simple. A character is granted one passive skill point every time they level up and are sometimes even granted more from completing certain quests. In extremely simple we have the intelligence section which focuses on spell damage, summoning, and elemental damage.

Next, we have the Dexterity section which is more focused on ranged combat, evasion, and speed. At the bottom left, we have the Strength section which is more melee and defense-oriented. Next, we’ve passive nodes and they are split into two categories. The small passives that grant minor bonuses such as a small increase in attack speed, spell damage, melee damage, or attributes.

Second, we’ve notable passives. These are larger passive points that grant greater bonuses than the smaller ones but they have stats on them that are often closely related to the small passives leading up to them. Think of these as checkpoints to work towards. On top of this, we have a third passive point but is not entirely compared to the two others. For the third one, we have the keystones which are build changing character defining that often provide a massive amount of power with a downside. However, these downsides can be reduced or worked towards.

Following a specific setup is extremely useful and understanding the passive skill tree can make or break your character. Investing more time in this specific section will definitely upgrade your knowledge of the game.

Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Gear

Gear Slot	Gear	Requirement	Effect
Main Hand Weapon	Advanced Zealot Bow	62 level, 142 dex.	Adds (6-10) to (12-17) physical damage to attacks (110-134) increased physical damage Adds (1-4) to (48-71) lightning damage to attacks
Offhand Weapon	Orimed Quiver	51 level	(7-10)% increased attack speed Adds (1-4) to (48-71) lightning damage to attacks +(451-550) to accuracy rating
Helmet	Radiant Grief	16 level, 30dex.	(80-100)% increased evasion rating +(15-25) to fire resistance 30% increased light radius Enemies in your presence are ignited as though dealt 100 base fire damage
Body Armour	Expert Rogue Armour	65 level, 86 str., 86dex	+(60-80) to maximum Life +(150-174) to maximum Life +(79-98) to armour +(70-88) to evasion rating (56-67)% increased armour and evasion +(31-35) to lightning resistance +(31-35) to cold resistance +(31-35) to fire resistance
Belt	Utility Belt	55 level	20% of flask recovery applied instantly +(139-168) to armour +(150-174) to maximum Life +(15-16)% to all elemental resistances +(26-30) to fire resistance +(20-23)% to Chaos resistance
Gloves	Advanced Riveted Mitts	45 level, 73 str.	+(200-214) to maximum Life
Boots	Iron Greaves	11 level, 20 str.	+(200-214) to maximum Life 35% increased movement speed
Ring 1	Death Rush	26 level	+(120-160) to accuracy rating +(75-125) to accuracy rating +(75-125) to evasion rating Leech 5% of physical attack damage as Life You gain On slaught for 4 seconds on a kill
Ring 2	Amethyst Ring	20 level	+(7-13)% to Chaos Resistance +(100-119) to maximum Life +(12-14) to all elemental resistances
Amulet	Amber Amulet	8 level	+(10-15) to Strength +(200-214) to maximum Life +(57-61) to spirit

How to Play Mercenary Witch Hunter in Path of Exile 2

Witch Hunter is an Ascendancy of Mercenary class in Path of Exile 2. This Strength/Dexterity hybrid Class allows you to use heavier gear and attack speed. Use only those gear that complements both attributes and increases the utility skills and crossbow damage output. Choosing the right Ascendancy is crucial as it customizes your playstyle to the next level. Positioning is important while playing in this Class, so use crossbows to maintain distance from melee enemies and swap between your two equipped crossbows.

Upgrade your attachments and ammo skills but begin with basic crossbow skills. Look for unique gear that also enhances elemental damage, cooldown speed for grenades, and ranged attack damage. Invest in those nodes, ensuring you increase projectile damage, attack speed, and utility effects. You need to practice switching between crossbows and ammo types to maximize the Class potential.

Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Build in Path of Exile 2 Summary

FAQs about Best Mercenary Witch Hunter Build in Path of Exile 2 (POE 2)?

How important is gear for my Witch Hunter build?

Gear in Path of Exile 2 is crucial for any build, including your Witch Hunter build. The Gears determine how strong and survivable your build will be in combat. Gear in the Witch Hunter build allows you to handle the tougher battle in Path of Exile 2, so always focus on improving gear through crafting, buying, or farming.

How do I acquire Witch Hunter’s new skills?

Getting new skills involves obtaining skill gems that you can socket into the equipment to grant corresponding abilities. You can obtain the skill gems while progressing through the campaign or you can purchase the skill gems from the vendors. Use the support gems to increase the strengthen the effects of your primary skills.

Can I respec my Witch Hunter build if I make a mistake?

Yes, you can respec your Witch Hunter build by refunding passive skill points through The Hooded One, an NPC located in the Clearfell Encampment. Complete the “Sorrow Among Stones” quest in Act 1, to unlock this feature. However, it will take you 2 to 5 hours, depending on your pace.

What’s the best way to level up the Witch Hunter build quickly?

The best way to level up the Witch Hunter build quickly is by selecting skills, and equipment, and employing synergistic combat techniques. Enhance your gear and equipment and optimize the skill gem selection. 

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